Although my 25th birthday was two and a half weeks ago, I’ve only just finished celebrating it, as per usual. This weekend we hosted a joint celebration at our house – the culmination of my birthday festivities and the kick-off of Trevor’s (one week from today!). It was a casual thing – grilled pizzas made-to-order and eaten on the porch, hot arancini dipped in tomato sauce to tide us over between pizzas, pitchers of mojitos, blackberry sangria, and a wealth of good beer. We managed to rally a crew to go out dancing afterwards, and it was a really fun night. I already like being 25; no quarter-century crises for me so far (I think I had mine when I was 21, anyway).

Everything was delicious, but the culinary highlight of the evening was undoubtedly this gorgeous cake that Trevor made – three layers of homemade angel food cake, spread with strawberry jam, an airy whipped cream cheese frosting, and mounds of fresh berries (best when swiped through the frosting on the top of the cake). It was stunning to look at and dreamy to eat, sweet and light and perfect. And it only took 20 egg whites to make. Now I just have to come up with something that tops it for next week.

Past Birthday Posts:
2013: Triple Lemon-Cake with Lemon-Mascarpone-Cream Cheese Frosting
2013: Sparkling Strawberry Sangria
2012: Mom’s Birthday Waffles with Strawberry Sauce

Angel-Food Layer Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe based on The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts. Serves 12.

For the angel food cake:

• 290 grams cake flour
• 200 grams confectioners’ sugar
• 400 grams granulated sugar
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 800 grams large egg whites (roughly a score of eggs [editorial note: that means 20])
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• 8 oz box cream cheese
• 2 ½ cups of heavy cream
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 c. sugar

For the assembly:

• ¾ cup jam of choice (I used strawberry)
• 1 pint strawberries
• ½ pint blackberries
• ½ pint raspberries

Instructions for cake:

1. Sift together cake flour and confectioners’ sugar. In a separate smaller bowl, mix together salt and cream of tartar.
2. Preheat oven to 325°F.
3. Separate egg whites (really make sure you don’t get any yolk in there), and add salt to them in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Whip using a stand mixer (or an immersion blender with a whisk attachment.) Beat on low until foaming, gradually raising the speed of the beaters while adding the granulated sugar in batches. Beat until stiff, foamy peaks are achieved.
4. Add vanilla and gently fold in. Fold in the flour and sugar mixture in in several additions, being careful not to mix too vigorously, as the batter will deflate.
5. Pour batter into two 9-inch springform cake pans and two 6-inch springform cake pans and bake for about 35 minutes, or until the top is light golden brown and firm to the touch. Do not grease the pans – the pans need to be ungreased so that the cake can climb up the sides and get that nice airy texture.
6. Invert the cake pans on a wire rack. Run a knife around the edge when the cakes are cool and carefully unmold. Run a knife between the bottom plate and the cake before attempting to remove the bottom plate.

Instructions for frosting:

1. Mix cream of tartar, sugar and vanilla into cream cheese. Gradually add heavy cream and whip until it is the consistency of dense whipped cream. Chill until

To assemble:

1. Place the first large cake on a plate, and spread jam on the top of the cake. Spread frosting on top of the jam. Put each additional layer on with jam and frosting on top, leaving the last layer jamless.
2. Frost the rest of the cake, and artfully arrange berries on top. And add a flower. Put additional berries on slices. Can’t have too many berries.

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Yesterday, I turned 24, rather unceremoniously. Usually, I make a big fuss of my birthday – I drag it out for as long as possible, believing as I do that you should never waste a good excuse to indulge in all your favorite foods and coerce all your favorite people into spending time with you. But this year, given all the chaos in our city right now, it felt different. I still celebrated – last Saturday I had a fun and happy party, Trevor and I have a nice dinner planned, and tomorrow I’ll be joining my parents for steak tips and strawberry shortcake. But, like everyone else in the city, if not the whole country, my attention was elsewhere. How could a birthday be important when people around you are having their hearts broken? It feels selfish and trivial to think too much about myself this week.

Still, I made this birthday cake. I had made the components ahead of time – my favorite vanilla cake recipe, made with coconut milk, lemon cream cheese and mascarpone frosting, and a lemon curd filling – but I assembled it late Monday afternoon, as a distraction from the news (or really, the lack of news) streaming in from the TV. I brought slices to work, to comfort myself after the unsettling experience of riding a train protected by stoic National Guardsmen and slipping through barricades to get into the office. I ate a slice this morning, my nerves shaken and tears threatening as I absorbed everything that happened overnight. And so it became a cake tinged with sadness. A cake turned to from need of distraction and comfort. All week, the phrase “the particular sadness of lemon cake” has been drifting through my head (from the title of this book). I didn’t set out to make a cake that would fit that description, it just happened.

Hopefully this will all be over soon, and we will be able to grieve for the victims without feeling a small but constant fear.  There are many families that have been changed forever, for whom sadness will be a constant, but we will do our best to love and comfort them. We will let the spring soothe us and our smiles will become broader. People will eat birthday cake with no sadness whatsoever.

P.S. Birthday recipes from last year, for a more jovial tone – Tequila and Lime Steak Tacos and the obligatory Birthday Waffles

Triple Lemon Cake with Lemon-Mascarpone-Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake recipe adapted from 6 Bittersweets. Lemon curd recipe from David Leibowitz. Serves 12-16.

For the cake:

• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 c.) salted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 2 1/4 c. AP flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 c. canned coconut milk (shake well before opening)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper, or grease well. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat vigorously until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly between each addition. Batter should be pale yellow and thick.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Add half of the flour mixture to the batter, and stir until just incorporated. Add the coconut milk, and stir until just incorporated. Add the second half of the flour mixture, and stir, again, just until incorporated. Overbeating the batter will lead to a tough cake. Stir in the vanilla and lemon extracts, if using.
4. Pour half of the batter into each of the two prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, until the cakes are light golden brown on top and spring back when touched. A toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes should come out clean. Let cakes cool for 5 minutes in the pans on a cooling rack, then run a knife around the edges of the cake to loosen and invert onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely before assembling.

For the lemon curd:

• 1/2 c. lemon juice, preferably freshly squeezed
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 TBS unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1. Place a mesh strainer over a medium heatproof bowl, and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, whisk together lemon juice, sugar, egg yolks, eggs, and salt until thoroughly combined. Add the butter pieces and heat over low heat, whisking constantly. Once the butter has all melted, raise the heat to medium-low, and continue to cook, still whisking constantly, until the curd has thickened to a pudding-like consistency. Immediately remove from heat and pour through strainer into the bowl.
3. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing plastic against the curd to keep a skin from forming, and refrigerate until fully chilled.

For the frosting:

• 8 oz. mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 1 TBS fresh lemon juice

1. Beat together the mascarpone and cream cheeses until there are no lumps. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating vigorously between additions, until the frosting is stiff (you may not use all 4 cups). Add the lemon extract and lemon juice and beat to incorporate. Taste for flavor, consistency, and sweetness, and adjust lemon juice and/or sugar amounts according to taste.

To assemble:

1. Dab a bit of the frosting on a cake plate. Place your bottom, cooled layer of cake on top of the cake plate and press down to stick. Spoon a generous layer of lemon curd on top of the cake and spread with a spatula. The layer of lemon curd should be about 1/3 inch thick all around the cake – you may not use all of the lemon curd. Gently place the second cake layer on top of the lemon curd. Press down lightly, and wipe any lemon curd that oozes out off the side of the cake. Frost the cake, using a crumb coat if you want the cake to be extra neat.
2. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve cold or at room temperature, with an extra dollop of lemon curd or fresh strawberries.

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Most of you can probably imagine my excitement when, after only 5 weeks of work, one of my co-workers announced that there would be a company wide charity bake-off the following week.  Baking?  As a competition?  With the chance to win both admiration and a sizable donation to the charity of my choice?  Even if you just asked me to bake you something and there was no competitive aspect, chance for glory, or prize, I would probably say yes – I just like to bake without feeling pressured to eat it all myself.  So I was definitely going to participate in the bake-off.  I started brainstorming immediately.  I made a test batch of caramel-apple bars and brought them in to the office.  Reactions were good, but I didn’t love the presentation.  So I made some chocolate-mint cupcakes over the weekend.  Delicious, but might present difficulties in transportation on a crowded subway during rush hour.  Besides, some people expressed dislike for the chocolate-mint combination at lunch on Monday, and I wanted everyone to be happy.

Then, I had it.  Lemon-cream sandwich cookies.  A buttery, melt-in-your mouth cookie filled with sweet-tart lemon buttercream, rolled in sanding sugar.  Pretty, easy to transport, and delicious.  I went to buy lemon extract on my lunch break, sat down at my desk, and announced with satisfaction to my pod-mate that I had finally made a decision – I would be making lemon sandwich cookies.

“Ew, lemon.”  What?  Who doesn’t like lemon?  I thought lemon was number three for most common and agreeable dessert flavors, right after chocolate and vanilla, maybe tied with strawberry.  But some other people walking by overheard and nodded in agreement.  “Don’t make lemon.  I don’t really like lemon.”  What a weird group of people I work with.  But they’re awesome in most other ways, so I guess I’ll just look past the dessert preference thing.  Anyways, I was torn.  I was so excited about the cookies – I could almost taste them – but obviously pleasing the judges was my main concern.  I took a quick e-mail poll and lemon was soundly defeated by chocolate-mint cupcakes.  Frustrated, I went back to the grocery store, bought a set of mini-muffin pans and more butter, and got started making and carefully frosting 4 dozen mini-cupcakes.  They were adorable.  They were delicious.  They won first place for my department and $100 to the charity of my choice (although they were beaten out in the final round by some yummy-looking oreo truffles).  But I was still thinking about those lemon cookies.  With their perfect rosebud shape.  And I had the lemon extract… so I set a cookie-making date with myself for Sunday afternoon.

They turned out just as I had imagined them – buttery, ever-so slightly crumbly cookies, with the delicious sweet lemony tang in the filling.  They are the kind of cookies I would serve at tea, or a baby shower, if I wasn’t 22 and hosted things like teas and baby showers.  Piping the dough through a frosting tip presented a bit of a challenge, as the dough was too thick for my bootleg ziploc baggie frosting method and burst right through it.  But I really wanted them to be pretty, so I got dirty and used my hands to push the dough through the frosting tip one cookie at a time.  I was a mess.  It was worth it.  They would also be just as good just dolloped on the pan, if you weren’t inclined to strive for rosebud cookie glory.  Next time you want a subtle, elegant cookie to add to your cookie tray, I would definitely recommend trying these out.

Lemon-Cream Sandwich Cookies

Cookie recipe adapted from Canelle et Vanille.  Makes 10 sandwiches.

• 1 stick salted butter, room temperature
• 7 TBS sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 1/4 tsp orange extract
• 1 1/3 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 stick salted butter, softened
• 2-3 c. powdered sugar
• 2-3 TBS lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  In a large bowl, cream together 1 stick butter with sugar.  Add egg yolks one at a time, beating between additions.  Beat in extract.  Beat in flour and salt until fully incorporated.  Dough should be the consistency of a soft clay – workable with some stretch, but not runny.  Spoon dough by the tablespoon onto baking sheet, or pipe through a large frosting tip into a rosebud.  Cookies will spread a fair amount in the oven, so do not place too close together.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until tops are just beginning to turn golden brown, then remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.
2. In a medium bowl, beat butter until creamy.  Add powdered sugar a half cup at a time, beating to fully incorporate between additions.  When frosting is stiff but workable.  Add lemon juice and beat until incorporated.  Test for flavor, adding more lemon juice if necessary.  Add more powdered sugar until frosting hold soft peaks.  Spread a spoonful of frosting on the bottom of a cookie, then press another cookie evenly against the center to create a sandwich.  Roll in sanding sugar if desired.  Serve at room temperature; refrigerate any leftovers.

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Have you seen this video?  I’m obsessed with it.  This girl has got it figured out.  Dinner time?  How about cupcakes!  Breakfast?  I know, cupcakes!  Every time she says it she is clearly thinking very hard about what the correct thing to eat is.  And every time she comes to the same conclusion: cupcakes.  Duh, mom.

I took a page from Julia’s book and made cupcakes for no reason other than that I felt like it.  And a little bit because I got a new frosting tip and wanted to see if it magically transformed my creations into something beautiful.  Which in my opinion it totally did.  Turns out they were good enough to be made again 3 days later and entered into my company’s charity bake-off where they won $100, but that’s another story.  This chocolate cake recipe is one that seems to be pretty prevalent around the internet, so I decided to give it a try, although I’m unsure of its original origin.  It’s definitely delicious – super moist and chocolatey, and it leaves you with slightly sticky, cakey fingers after each bite – but I think I would only use it for certain recipes.  It reminds me a lot of chocolate cakes from childhood birthday parties because of it’s simple flavor and almost gooey (but in a good, cakey way) texture, so it’s perfect with tiny, simply frosted cupcakes, but I wouldn’t use it for a more elegant recipe.  With the mint frosting these were almost refreshing in their mintiness, and, especially in their mini form, the perfect minty-chocolate bite of dessert.

Chocolate-Mint Cupcakes

Makes 12 regular cupcakes; 48 mini cupcakes.

For cupcakes:

• 1 c. sugar
• 7/8 c. flour (7/8 c. = 3/4 c. + 2 TBS)
• 3/8 c. cocoa (3/8 c. = 6 TBS)
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• 1/2 c. boiling water

For frosting

• 1 1/2 sticks softened, salted butter
• 3 c. powdered sugar
• 1-2 TBS heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• 1 drop green food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line muffin tin with muffin liners.  In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, until well combined.  Add egg, milk, vegetable oil, and extracts, and whisk for about 2 minutes, until batter has no lumps.  Add 1/2 c. boiling water and incorporate.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin – 1 full TBS of batter each for mini cupckaes, 1/2 c. batter for regular cupcakes (which should be about 3/4 full).  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean – 18-20 minutes for regular cupcakes, and 10-12 minutes for mini cupcakes.  Allow to cool completely before frosting.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the softened butter until smooth and creamy.  Add the powdered sugar a half cup at a time, beating to creamy stage between each addition.  If the buttercream gets too stiff to beat, add a splash of heavy cream and incorporate.  Once all the powdered sugar is added and the buttercream holds stiff peaks, add the peppermint extract and food coloring, and beat until fully combined.  Adjust for flavor and consistency – add more powdered sugar for a stiffer, sweeter frosting, and a splash of heavy cream for a thinner, richer frosting.  Store frosting and frosted cupcakes in fridge in airtight container.

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Over the weekend, I developed three wasabi-centric recipes for the last round of the Marx Food contest that I’ve been participating in for the past 7 weeks.  I only submitted one of my three recipe so the contest, but I still enjoyed the other two.  One of the rejected recipes was for wasabi cupcakes with grapefruit buttercream and caramelized grapefruit.  While the wasabi cupcake wasn’t my favorite, the grapefruit buttercream was incredible and I’m pretty proud of myself for developing the recipe.

My problem with most grapefruit flavored baked goods is that they don’t taste at all of grapefruit – it’s a hard flavor to instill because grapefruit juice is fairly dilute, so it’s hard to maintain its bright, juicy flavor while also keeping a reasonable wet-dry ratio in your recipe.  I’ve tried grapefruit curd that only tasted slightly citrusy, grapefruit frosting that was far too runny to use, and grapefruit cake with a cup of grapefruit juice but no flavor to it at all.  This time, I wanted to really get that grapefruit flavor, so I decided to create my own grapefruit concentrate and use that as my flavoring.  I boiled a cup and a half of ruby red grapefruit juice for about 40 minutes, reducing it to about 1/4 cup of viscous liquid.  This grapefruit reduction was so tart, while retaining its juicy flavor, that I had high hopes for it.  I mixed a basic buttercream up, omitting half the liquid ingredients (cream and vanilla) and added 3 TBS of the grapefruit concentrate to it.  Voila!  The frosting was firm, pipable, a lovely pink-orange color, and actually tasted like grapefruit.  Great success.

Grapefruit Buttercream

Makes about 1 1/2 cups, or enough for 12-14 cupcakes

• 1 1/2 c. grapefruit juice
• 1 stick salted butter, room temperature
• 2 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 1 TBS heavy cream

1. Cook the grapefruit juice over medium-high heat in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally, for about 30-40 minutes, or until the juice has reduced to about 1/4 c. and is beginning to act syrupy.  Skim any foam off the top and discard.  Allow to cool completely before using in the frosting, or store in the fridge until ready to use.
2. In a large bowl, beat the stick of butter with a wooden spoon until it is smooth.  Add 1/2 c. of the confectioner’s sugar and stir in until all of the sugar is incorporated.  Then beat vigorously for a minute or so.  Add the remaining confectioner’s sugar, scraping any excess down the sides.  Incorporate, and then beat vigorously for 3 minutes, until fluffy and smooth.  Add the 1 TBS of heavy cream and beat in.  Add 2-3 TBS of the grapefruit reduction and incorporate thoroughly.  Taste.  If it needs more flavor, add the remaining grapefruit reduction as well as an extra 1/2 c. of confectione’rs sugar in order maintain the consistency.

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